Author: Markham Hislop

If opposition to Canadian exclusive jurisdiction over inter-provincial pipelines grows, would Supreme Court back “co-operative federalism”? “Sabre rattling doesn’t get you very far,” was Premier John Horgan’s response to the decision by Alberta to ban BC wines. He’s right. After several years of a deft touch on the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline file, Rachel Notley has made her first misstep in the escalating feud with her fellow NDP premier. What she should do is continue to emphasize exclusive federal authority over inter-provincial pipelines and leave the heavy lifting to Ottawa and the National Energy Board. The issue at hand...

No easy answer to thorny constitutional issues, respectful dialogue between British Columbians and Albertans will help So, John Horgan wants feedback from British Columbians about potential restrictions on dilbit shipments from Alberta and Rachel Notley says Alberta may sue and retaliate with stopping imports of BC electricity. Did anyone think the dispute over the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline was not going to be ugly? Well, hang on, you ain’t seen nothing yet. When Christy Clark and the BC Liberals ruled the roost in Victoria, they made a show of being tough about the 525,000 b/d Kinder Morgan project, but...

Renewable electricity generation costs expected to continue declining, especially for solar photovoltaic systems The US Energy Information Administration says that continued development of American shale and tight oil and natural gas resources paired with modest energy consumption growth lead to the transition of the United States from a net energy importer to a net energy exporter. EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2018 (AEO2018), released this morning, includes projections of U.S. energy markets through 2050 based on a Reference case and a number of sensitivity cases. The United States has been a net energy importer since 1953, but the AEO2018 Reference case projects the...

China’s crude oil imports will likely continue to increase over at least the next 2 years China surpassed the United States in annual gross crude oil imports in 2017, importing 8.4 million barrels per day (b/d) compared with 7.9 million b/d for the United States. China had become the world’s largest net importer (imports minus exports) of total petroleum and other liquid fuels in 2013. New refinery capacity and strategic inventory stockpiling combined with declining domestic oil production were the major factors contributing to the recent increase in China’s crude oil imports. In 2017, 56% of China’s crude oil imports came...

Notley’s intention to sue, retaliate economically against BC designed to stiffen Trudeau’s resolve Has Rachel Notley failed on the pipeline file? The Alberta Premier has been collateral damage to some extent in the uproar this week over British Columbia’s ham-handed signal that it intends to block dilbit shipments to the West Coast. But criticisms of her fundamentally misunderstand the constitutional and political issues at play. For starters, pipelines are federal responsibility. In fact, this is the core of the squabble with British Columbia, which is trying to assert provincial authority in an area that has been historically the exclusive...